Sins of the Son | Carlton Stowers

Sins of the Son | Carlton Stowers | Should have included "sins of the father"

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Sins of the Son

	Sins of the Son Carlton Stowers St. Martin's True Crime, 2000 - 256 pages average customer review:based on 11 reviews view larger image
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An acclaimed true-crime author takes on his toughest project of all-- writing about a murderer who happens to be his son.

When a hideous murder makes the headlines, a barrage of questions usually appears in its wake: Why did this happen? Could it have been prevented? What kind of family was the criminal from? Are his parents in some way to blame? Any crime writer worth his salt would attempt to answer these questions-- but how do you address such questions when the killer is your own son?

As a single father raising two sons, Carlton Stowers did his best to instill in his boys a healthy sense of right and wrong. But with Anson, his oldest, it would prove to be an ongoing uphill battle. At a young age, Anson began to angrily shun authority, and soon became involved with a number of illicit activities, including drugs, forgery, and theft. After each jail stay, Anson would vow to get clean and start anew. It became a revolving door for both father and son, until Anson, twenty-five years old and strung-out on amphetamines, brutally murdered his young ex-wife.

In a brave, honest, and moving work, bestselling true-crime writer Carlton Stowers examines the downfall of his eldest son, once a happy child full of promise, now a convicted murderer serving a sixty-year sentence. With a reporter's shrewdness and a father's heart, Stowers presents a true story of two lives irrevocably lost, and of one man struggling to both understand-- and move beyond-- the...Sins of the Son.

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One of a kind

This ia a book written by Carlton Stowers about his own life, and his own son who turns into a murderer. It is SO well done. The book is interesting enough as a true-crime book, but Stowers obviously has the inside information about all of the characters in the book. He is quick to point out mistakes he made as a parent while also acknowledging that he was not at fault for what eventually happened, you can feel the pain he went through for years with his son, and he becomes an even more admirable man once you learn that he fought for his kids and raised them on his own once he was divorced from their mother. Any parent who has ever struggled with an out-of-control child will love this book, any true-crime fan will love this book. I did not want it to end. This one is a must-read!

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Should have included "sins of the father"

This true story is every parent's worst nightmare. Carlton Stowers was a journalist raising his two sons. His oldest son, Anson, had been a good child. He had a normal youth that involved sports and animals. In school, he did well and was not a problem. Then, he began to change.

How did this normal child turn to a life of crime, drugs, and eventually murder?

This is an excellent book. It addresses the issue of a child's misbehavior from the point of a father, a journalist, and an award-winning true crime writer. He deals with the issues of his son honestly and openly, as only the person experiencing the crisis can. However, he fails to examine his own problems. Since the title is "Sins of the Son," I suppose he did not feel that the sins of the father would be pertinent. Personally, I feel that the father is as much at fault as the son.

Carlton Stowers is the author of To The Last Breath and Careless Whispers. He has won the Edgar Award twice.

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Disheartening...

I've just finished reading this book, and although I found it hard at times to put it down, what struck me when I finished the book was that there is little to no mention of the other family that was affected by the author's son. I understand that the purpose of the book could have been to find out where the father went wrong, but what about some sort of consolation for the family of the murdered victim? Aside from that, the writing was engaging and I look forward to reading more of Carlton Stower's books.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3

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